Chelsea and City lead pursuit of Arsenal

Chelsea's Fernando Torres (L) is fouled by Southampton's Victor Wanyama during their English Premier League soccer match against Southampton at Stamford Bridge in London December 1, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

VERBAL SPAT

Under pressure Spurs boss Villas-Boas accused reporters of having an agenda against after his side's draw with United, a verbal spat that overshadowed an improved showing by his side after their humiliation at Man City.

Kyle Walker fired Spurs in front after 18 minutes with a free kick that went under United's four-man wall but Rooney showcased his poacher's instinct to level after 32 following a dreadful mistake by Walker.

Sandro's thunderbolt restored Tottenham's lead after the break but when Hugo Lloris was adjudged to have brought down Danny Welbeck in the area Rooney strode up to thump his side level with his eighth league goal of the campaign.

Even so, United manager David Moyes said he was concerned that the gap to Arsenal was growing.

"It's a busy period coming up and we want to be on the shirt tails of (the leading teams) going into the end of the year, and at the start of next year," Moyes said.

"Undoubtedly Arsenal have been very consistent and they have got off to a great start but there will be a lot of teams now looking to chase them down and hopefully we are one of them."

Villas-Boas, whose side remained ninth but only three points off the top four, praised his side but spent most of his news conference arguing with a journalist.

"People insult by integrity, my human values, my professionalism and one of these people is sitting here," said the Portuguese who was apparently also riled by former chairman and host of TV show "The Apprentice" Alan Sugar's midweek Twitter comments saying Spurs should hire Alex Ferguson as manager.

Hull, who had never beaten Liverpool, opened the scoring on 20 minutes thanks to a huge slice of good fortune, Jake Livermore's shot from distance cannoning off the boot of Martin Skrtel and looping over keeper Simon Mignolet.

Liverpool leveled thanks to a curling free kick from Steven Gerrard but their lacklustre performance was punished in the second half when David Meyler latched on to a loose ball and buried it into the bottom corner.

Skrtel deflected in a Tom Huddlestone shot with three minutes remaining to wrap up the points for Hull.